http://www.imca.cat//news News <p>The final IMCA II meeting took place in Barcelona on 12 and 13 April 2010. About 30 participants coming from almost all IMCA partner organizations took place. The meeting was the opportunity to share&nbsp; the ultimate results of the different activities of the project within the IMCA network. Partners agreed on future dissemination activities of the project's results through subsmission of abstracts to scientific journal of events. Among other activities, an IMCA symposium will be held during the European Respiratory Congress in Barcelona in September 2010 as well as an IMCA workshop during the European Public Health Association Congress scheduled in November 2010 in Amsterdam.</p> 2010-09-03 00:00:00 <p>Three poster presentations on IMCA were made during the ERS congress in Vienna. The main results of the HES five feasibility studies implemented in IMCA II was named &quot;Wireless mobile tehcnologies facilitates home-based data collection and processing in large epidemiological surveys: results from the IMCA-HES feasibility study&quot;. The second presentation was a local declination of the first one and put the emphasis of the specific results of the feasibility study carried out in the area of Pisa in Italy. The third presentation was named &quot;Recommended and priority indicators for monitoring COPD and asthma in the European union: results from the IMCA I project&quot;. During this presentation, the it was explained that one of the outputs of the IMCA II project was actually the collection of indicators at national level on COPD and asthma in 25 EU countries following the recommendations made by the IMCA I project.</p> <p>Additionally, the IMCA II partners present at the ERS Congress in Vienna met in a private meeting in order to discuss about the latest developmment of the project.</p> 2009-10-23 00:00:00 <p>Five additional partners from Norway, Poland, France, Greece and Bulgary of the IMCA II will shortly start HES feasibility study in their country. Over the last few months, each site has been carrying out preliminary work to the studies: translations of the questionnaires, samples' extraction, staff selection and training and submission of protocal to local ethic committee for approval. They also have been trained in Barcelona to the proper implementation of the protocol and to the use of an updated version of an ICT application developped within the IMCA project that should enhance the implementation of Heath Examination Surveys. Tests with the application are being made in the participating country. These further studies are complementary to those made in 2008 in Barcelona, Rome, Pisa, Ulm and Upsalla and should provide further lessons as for the potencial of ICT and sensor devices for supporting HES implementation.</p> 2009-10-22 00:00:00 <p><span lang="EN-GB" style="">This report is being finalized. The methods to be used in order to calculate mortality rates for asthma and COPD have been agreed with statistical officers at EUROSTAT. As the current &ldquo;Atlas on mortality&rdquo; published by EUROSTAT does not include data on COPD and Asthma, it is contemplated that a further edition of the Atlas would include the data extracted on these two conditions by the IMCA team.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="">Data were extracted manually from the EUROSTAT web application in order to obtain the mortality and hospitalization data at the level of detail required by the IMCA II project. Several problems concerning data quality, such as the changes over time of ICD classifications and codes for instance, have been taken into consideration when analyzing mortality data and specially trends over time.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="">The consolidated report including commented tables on mortality and hospitalization for COPD and asthma will be published on the intranet of this website and will serve as a base for future publications in scientific journals.</span></p> 2009-10-22 00:00:00 <p>The Imperial College, in coordination with the IMCA Coordinating Centre and several of the IMCA II partners, is collecting of COPD and asthma indicators by gender, age and social class from large international surveys. The studies used are in the first place the ECRHS I and ECRHS II (European Community Respiratory Health Survey). Other large studies such as ISAAC or the BOLD or AIRE will be other relevant sources of information. Once the data is gathered, it will complete the information collected via routine and administrative indicators in the countries participating to the IMCA II project. Indeed international studies are often the only source of information available for certain describing at country level certain indicators on COPD and Asthma.</p> 2009-10-22 00:00:00